Against Me! B-sides!

Against Me! is quite possibly my favorite band. I have a tendency to name other bands first when asked who some of my top favorites are... Screeching Weasel, Streetlight Manifesto, Minor Threat and so on, but when I take a look at which band I listen to the most via last.fm, Against Me! is always at the top.

Against Me! has, and always will have, a special place in my heart. I was introduced to them during the summer of 2003 by my friend Sabina. She was playing a song called "Baby, I'm an Anarchist" on her guitar, and I loved it. The music was simple, the lyrics were great and the chorus could be sung-along to (actually, that entire song is pretty sing-songy).

Eventually I ended getting all their commercially available albums (at that time, two LPs, 3 EPs), loving each one. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding their more recent albums in the punk community, either because it's singles were getting airplay on Fuse (Don't Lose Touch and From Her Lips to God's Ears from Searching for a Former Clarity) or because they were not only getting airplay, but also released on a major label (anything from New Wave) and being praised by a number of publications (New Wave was named by Spin as the best album of 2007).

I'm not going to spent much time arguing why I think Against Me! is still great. I will say that I think it's stupid that people still care so much about them "selling out" because of two reasons:
1. people have been making that claim since 2001, when Tom enlisted a full band and they got a full electric line up
2. the sound on New Wave is really just an expansion on the sound they started experimenting with on Searching and, to a lesser extent, As the Eternal Cowboy.

in short... Against Me! haters: bite me. if you don't like it, don't listen. If you think they peaked with the Acoustic EP, then don't bother with anything else (that said, the Acoustic EP is still my favorite release by them)

NOW on to the B-sides......

there are two collections here. The first one is mostly stuff that appeared on singles, such as the Sink Florida Sink 7" or Tribute albums. None of it dates prior to 2003, and a majority of the songs are either from As the Eternal Cowboy-era or New Wave-era (though the two SFAFC singles are there). There's no definitive tracklist, but here's a list of songs in the download:

Cavalier Eternal (Alternate)
You Look Like I Need a Drink (Acoustic)
Don't Lose Touch (Mouse On Mars Remix)
Don't Lose Touch (Live)
Don't Lose Touch (Acoustic)
From Her Lips to God's Ears (Energize-O-Tron Remix by Adrock)
Wagon Wheel (Old Crow Medicine Show cover)
Sink Florida Sink (Electric)
Unsubstantiated Rumors Are Good Enough for Me (to Base My Life Upon) (Electric)
Gypsy Panther*
You Must Be Willing*
Bastards of Young (Replacements cover)
White People for Peace (Butch Vig Remix)
Full Sesh*

*I hear these are on the French version of New Wave.

Against Me! B-sides 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?yzlmnwhmlmw


The second collection is a bit different. This one sports songs way back from when Against Me! was just Tom Gabel and his acoustic guitar, to alternate versions of New Wave songs. This one is more varied, although the sound quality in the first three or four songs is glaringly different than the rest of the songs. Actually, when I think about it, pretty much all these songs from pre-Reinventing Axl Rose or New Wave, so there's a huge difference here. One of the tracks is the "Untitled" taken directly from the legendary (amongst AM! fans anyhow) "Live at C.O.R.E." performance and given the new name "This Song Never Had a Name." Another "Untitled" song, the one that appears on the French version of New Wave, is also here with a new name, "Rock and Rollers," while it's acoustic version has a different title completely. I don't know why, but that's how it goes.
When I first got one of these songs, the album is came from was called "Heart Burns." Now, I don't know if that's a side project or anything, but there is no Against Me! album titled that, and I decided to put this grouping of songs into a rarities collection aptly titled "Heart Burns: Rare and Unreleased" even though these songs are obviously available or else I wouldn't have been able to get them.

EDIT: Heart Burns is Tom's solo EP title. Oops.

tracklist:
01. One Pound of Flesh
02. Untitled at Emo's
03. This Song Never Had a Name (aka "Untitled 2" from Live at C.O.R.E.)
04. Harsh Realm
05. Nuclear Cowboys in an Age of Drift
06. Amputations
07. So Much More*
08. Rock and Rollers* (aka Untitled)
09. Graceful Concessions
10. Miami (Acoustic)
11. Up the Cuts (Acoustic)
12. New Wave (Acoustic)
13. Animal (demo)

*these also appear on the French version of New Wave

B-sides Collection 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?gzecmqjxzpo

blink-182 - Buddha (Casette version + Promo tracks)

blink-182 gets a lot of hate. they get a lot of love too, but in the punk community they are generally despised. And rightfully so, as a lot of things they did were everything punk's hated. Bubble gum pop songs played on MTV with a teeny-bopper fanbase. Not to mention a lot of their lyrics were childish and about girls and masturbating, but I won't stress that a lot, because there are a lot of punk bands who are respected who wrote about the same things (The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and Buzzcocks' "Orgasm Addict" come to mind). Of course, I don't consider blink-182 to be a punk band. Calling them a pop punk band is pushing it. To say they were influenced by such bands, definitely, but it's a stretch calling them otherwise. I didn't really pick up on it until recently (as in the past year or so) but a lot of Tom's guitar work has a pretty heavy Screeching Weasel/Jughead influence in it.

That said, I still enjoy listening to blink-182. They were one of the first bands I really got into that I can still listen to today (Green Day not so much), though I admit that their two most commercially popular albums (1999's Enema of the State and 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket) are probably my least favorite. I've discovered that some people are still surprised to this day that the band has releases dating back to 1992, when Tom's voice was even worse than when they could afford a nice studio producer (Mark's is roughly the same, pretty clean), the sound quality was pretty lo-fi, the band didn't rely on novelty songs like "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" or "The Party Song" and the pop trio still got along (actually, when Mark and Tom got along, these recordings I'm referring to are from before Travis' time)

What I have here today is their Buddha demo, back from when they were known simply as blink. Not the CD version that was re-released by Kung-Fu Records in 1998 after they began to hit it big with Dude Ranch, but the tracks that were found on the original cassette (what are those? amirite?) demo plus the songs that were only released on the promo cassette they made in honor of said demo. There are a lot of songs here for a band that hadn't yet recorded anything else (23 songs total) and quite a few of them were re-recorded for Cheshire Cat, while about two or three were re-recorded for Dude Ranch. I actually prefer some of these versions to their studio counterparts (TV sounds a lot better with the channel surfing clip in the intro and I think Wasting Time works better without that "driving naked" line). There are the songs where the studio version is the greater one (Degenerate, Princess Leia), and then there are the songs that I just love regardless of which version it is (Fentoozler, Point of View, and the ever-great Carousel). I guess you could just form your own opinion though by checking it out.


01. Carousel
02. TV
03. Strings
04. Fentoozler
05. Time
06. Rebecca and Romeo
07. 21 Days
08. Sometimes
09. Degenerate
10. Point of View
11. My Pet Sally
12. Reebok Commercial
13. Toast and Bananas
14. The Family Next Door
15. Transvestite
16. Princess Leia (later titled "A New Hope")
17. The Girl Next Door (Screeching Weasel cover)
18. Strung Out (later titled "Enthused")
19. Ben Wah Balls
20. Does My Breath Smell?
21. Voyeur (not the same song titled "Voyeur" on Dude Ranch)
22. Wasting Time
23. Don't

Tracks 1-15 original Buddha Cassette tracks
Tracks 16-23 Buddha Promo tracks

http://www.mediafire.com/?dmwdayvnwrt

The Beastie Boys - Some Old Bullshit

I don't know what's harder to believe: that the Beastie Boys started off as a hardcore punk band from NYC, or that people still don't know that the Beastie Boys started off as a hardcore punk band from NYC.

I'm gonna go with the latter. Seriously, how do people not know this by now? Every time some ignorant white kid tells another white kid they don't like the Beastie Boys because "they're rap," they're schooled on their BB history. When it was announced that Sabotage was going to be in Guitar Hero III, all the same type of ignorant white boys cried "but they're a rap group! you can't play guitar to that!"
...I just wanted to grab them by the throat much like Homer grabs Bart while asking them if they've even heard the song before.


enough bitching about that though. The fact remains, whether white kids want to realize it or not, the Beastie Boys started their career off as a snotty young punk band from New York City playing with the likes of Reagan Youth and Bad Brains (the inspiration for a band name with the initials BB). Later they were discovered by Rick Rubin and recorded the "frat rap" Licensed to Ill (which, when you think about it, has a lot of guitar parts in it). They've gotten a lot better since then (though I still think The New Style, She's Crafty and Rhymin' and Stealin' are all great), but in the mid-90's, they released a compilation of some of their early tracks. And by early tracks, I mean their pre-hip hop career songs. You know, back when they were a hardcore punk band from NYC. What? You didn't know that? Shut up.

This album is by no means perfect. In fact, I think it gets kind of annoying at times, but when I'm looking for a hardcore fix, it gets the job done. Although in terms of perfection when it comes to the Beastie Boys, pretty much anything they've released since Paul's Boutique is gold (my personal favorites are Check Your Head and To the 5 Boroughs, but they all have their moments) (I can't actually speak for 2007's The Mix Up. I'm just not much of a guy for all instrumental albums).

so here ya go, Some Old Bullshit by the Beastie Boys




01. Egg Raid on Mojo
02. Beastie Boys
03. Transit Cop
04. Jimi
05. Holy Snappers
06. Riot Fight
07. Ode To...
08. Michelle's Farm
09. Egg Raid on Mojo
10. Transit Cop
11. Cookie Puss
12. Bonus Batter
13. Beastie Revolution
14. Cookie Puss (Censored)

http://www.mediafire.com/?jewpuxrbh2o

The Gaslight Anthem - Sink or Swim

The Gaslight Anthem are (depending on who you ask) either the best thing to come out of New Jersey since Springsteen (or the Misfits), or the most overrated thing to come out of New Jersey since Springsteen (or the Misfits). I fall into the former category, although I think most of the hate just comes from the fact that they get a lot of hype. At least that's what I gather from punknews.org, where there's a lot of hate to be spread. Or so I gather when I do check that site.

Moving on, The Gaslight Anthem, to me, are an amazing band who have yet to release a bad song. There's a chance I only think of them that way because they only have two releases; a 12 track full length and a four song EP. Either way, these guys know how to craft a good song. They aren't the most original sounding band ever (I think most refer to them as a "punk rock Bruce Springsteen"), but these guys acknowledge this by referencing their influences throughout their songs. The single I'da Called You Woody, Joe is chock full of references to the late Joe Strummer. Not to mention (and I know this is often mentioned in any review of their 2007 debut) the "woah-oh-oh's" in the first track Boomboxes and Dictionaries sound like they were directly lifted from Against Me!'s Sink, Florida, Sink.

without further ado, here it is:



01. Boomboxes and Dictionaries
02. I Coulda Been a Contender
03. Wooderson
04. We Came to Dance
05. 1930
06. The Navesink Banks
07. Red in the Morning
08. I'da Called You Woody, Joe
09. Angry Johnny and the Radio
10. Drive
11. We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner
12. Red at Night


the link is dead, but you should probably buy this one anyway.

The Mania - Four Song Demo

The Mania are a punk band hailing from New Paltz, NY. It's kind of funny, because none of the members are actually from New Paltz. That aside, the music is alright. This specific recording is kind of sloppy and the levels aren't balanced and all that jazz.

This is more shameless self promotion than anything. I'm in the band, so the more I spew, the more obvious it becomes.

oh, and we're planning on changing our name. We just don't know when we will. Or what to change it to.




01. Frat Party
02. Kamikaze Vomit Comet
03. Diet Pills
04. When I Dream (Take 1)
05. When I Dream (Take 2)


http://www.mediafire.com/?9dzyvx02ek0

Black Flag - Last Show with Dez Cadena

if you're even remotely into hardcore, you should know who Black Flag is. Damaged is one of the essential hardcore albums that every punk owns (be it a physical or electronic medium).

but before Henry Rollins was handling bike shorts duty, there was a man known as Dez Cadena handling the mic. After his vocal days with the band were done, he moved on to rhythm guitar for a short time (apparently two guitars didn't fly well with band leader Greg Ginn). He played with a few other bands after that (most notably Red Kross) and is currently a member of the Misfits. But that's now, let's go back to then:

pre-Rollins Black Flag had trouble keeping a vocalist. Dez was no exception. Although he wasn't their strongest vocalist, he was able to hold his own and bring his own presence to the stage. Today I present to you a recording of his final show as vocalist for Black Flag, recorded (if you can believe it) 27 years ago on this date (July 4th! Happy Birthday America!). I was told this is a soundboard recording, but I don't know how reliable my sources are. Enjoy it anyway.



(not actual album art)

Tracklist:
01. Damaged II
02. American Waste
03. Clocked In
04. Room 13
05. Rise Above
06. Spray Paint
07. Damaged I
08. Six Pack
09. Jealous Again
10. Police Story
11. No More
12. You Bet We've Got Something Personal Against You!
13. I've Heard it Before
14. Depression
15. Machine
16. I've Had It
17. Nervous Breakdown
18. No Values


http://www.mediafire.com/?njek0nn1i5n

Chumbawamba - Jesus H. Christ.

I decided that because music blogs aren't exactly 100% legal, my first post would be dedicated to an album that was never commercially released because it wasn't 100% legal in itself.


Chumbawamba's Jesus H. Christ was meant to be released in the early 1990's (possibly 1991?) as their follow up to 1990's Slap!. However, due to the number of uncleared samples that the album contained, there was no way to have it released the way it was, and the band was forced to re-work the entire album. It was eventually released in 1992 as Shhh, with all the samples removed, and the accompanying artwork contained images of the rejection letters the band recieved for their requests to sample other artists' music.


however, thanks to Peer-2-Peer networking, as well as people like me, it can be shared amongst fans to be heard it it's original glory. That's not to say that Shhh is a bad album, but hearing it int it's raw form is a very rewarding experience in itself. So without further ado, here it is, the unreleased Jesus H. Christ.




















01. Alright Now
02. Don't Fence Me In
03. Money Money Money
04. Solid Gold Easy Action
05. Silly Love Songs
06. Get Off
07. Stairway to Heaven
08. Big Mouth Strikes Again
09. Street Sounds
10. Should Be So Lucky
11. Stitch That

it should be noted that there is an "Intro" track which sampled the intro to Sgt. Pepper's on some versions, giving the album 12 tracks.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ytjgv4hnag3



and yes, this is the same band who wrote and performed Tubthumping back in 1997. Let's move on now.